Lisa Yee Swope of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Bonnie Shank of The Storybook Shoppe in Bluffton, South Carolina are the 2020 recipients of the Nancy Olson Bookseller Award.  The Nancy Olson Bookseller Award was launched in 2019 with an anonymous donation from an author who is also an admirer of the late Nancy Olson, founder of Quail Ridge Books. The award, which comes with a $2000 cash prize, honors booksellers who embody the spirit of Olson’s bookselling legacy of supporting writers–especially new writers– other booksellers, and community outreach. 

“Each day in the bookstore is a ray of sunshine surrounded by books and helping parents, grandparents, and children find the right book,” said Bonnie Shank of her work as a bookseller, “Nothing is better than hearing a mother or grandmother say their children devour books. This morning a grandfather came in and was looking for a Christmas book to read to his two and four year old grandchildren through Skype. What fun it was to help him pick the perfect book to share.” Shank said she was “humbled and proud” to have been nominated and selected for the award, which comes with a $2000 cash prize. “Our little children’s bookstore, The Storybook Shoppe, is the soul of our community, Historic Old Town Bluffton, and I am privileged to be a part of it.”  Shank came to The Storybook Shoppe nine years ago, after retiring from a 34-year career as an English and Language Arts teacher in the Department of Defense school system, living and teaching in Panama, Okinawa, Japan and Germany.

Lisa Yee Swope, who joined Bookmarks three years ago as it was transitioning from an annual book festival to a physical bookstore with year-round programming, said “I am delighted that the Bookmarks community sees and lauds my exuberance for sharing the things I love.  It's a daily joy to be part of a great org that is making such a difference in our schools and community.” Swope is a frontline bookseller who manages the Bookmarks Kids Club, a subscription service for kids in which she gets to individually pick books for dozens of children. This service also allows her to form ongoing relationships with the families in the community and the grandparents, aunts, and uncles in the community who have littles they love in and out of area.

Nancy Olson’s husband, Jim Olson, served as one of the judges for the Award, along with Sarah Goddin, buyer and former General Manager of Quail Ridge Books, and Linda-Marie Barrett, Executive Director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Jim spoke of his gratitude that the sponsor of this award chose to honor Nancy Olson’s legacy in this way, “Nancy would have loved this. She was a champion of other bookstores and would have loved to have seen booksellers so generously rewarded and acknowledged for the work they do for their communities.” 

Linda-Marie Barrett echoed Olson’s sentiment and added, “We received an amazing set of nominations this year. There were so many wonderful booksellers making such a difference in their communities; it was incredibly difficult to select just two.”

The full list of nominated booksellers

• Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
• Angie Fleming  of Givens Books in Lynchburg, VA
• Avery Leopard of Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, AL
• Alex McLeod of The Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, AL
• Nicole McManus, My Sister’s Books, Pawleys Island, SC
• Matilda McNeely of Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
• Kathy Neff of Square Books in Oxford, MS
• Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
• Bonnie Shank of The Storybook Shoppe in Bluffton, SC
• Mary Skelton, Blue Ridge Books, Waynesville, NC
• Kate Storhoff of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
• Lisa Yee Swope of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
• Cat VanOrder of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
• Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
• Mark Williams, Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA

For more information about the Nancy Olson Award, visit www.sibaweb.com or contact Linda-Marie Barrett at lindamarie@sibaweb.com